Our destination for day was Dubai Mall.

 

Again, we walked to Emirates Mall where we took the metro from Emirates Station to Burj Khalifa Station.

 

Our second time at Dubai Mall, we set out to catch up on stuff we missed the first time round.

 

First, was to taste the cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.

 

As a non-cheesecake connoisseur, pardon me for not being able to find a better description for it other than cheesy.

 

 

Next was to visit the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo.

 

We got the Platinum Aquarium package (AED80) which includes the Aquarium Tunnel, Underwater Zoo, Behind The Scenes Tour and a AED10 Gift Shop Voucher.

 

The Aquarium Tunnel is only 50m long but the views of the underwater world are rather spectacular.

 

 

The Underwater Zoo has an amazing array of species: fishes, otters, penguins and even reptiles.

 

 

On learning that the Behind The Scenes Tour is merely a brief 10-minute presentation of how the aquarium is maintained, we decided to skip it and headed for the museum shop to utilize our vouchers.

 

With just a combined total of 20AED, there wasn't much that we could buy.

 

While walking about the shop, I saw a penguin plush lying on the floor so I went over to pick it up and put it back on the shelf.

 

And right there on the shelf were 2 unredeemed vouchers of AED20 each.

 

With AED60 worth of gift vouchers, we got random small items (like pencils) as we didn't see anything of interest.

 

But after leaving the shop, our fairytale-infused minds started to conjure that the series of events was a divine plot for us to adopt the plush penguin.

 

(Cue disney intro music) Penguin longs for home. Stranger places two unredeemed gift vouchers on shelf. Penguin sees it as a chance to be adopted. He braves himself for the plunge and flings himself off the shelf. He was hoping that some kind soul would pick him up, see the unredeemed vouchers and decide to buy him. A man came along and picked him up and as expected, saw the vouchers. But sadly, they used the vouchers to buy some other stuff. Tears welled up in his eyes as he saw the couple walked out of the shop.

 

Pricked by conscience, we decided to go back to get penguin. Thanks to the missus, the staff allowed us to exchange our purchases, and top up with cash to buy penguin.

 

But there was another problem. I wasn't sure which one was he in the line of clones.

 

But there was a sign. The plush that I believed to be the one had a burst seam. With the defect, it's likely that he will not be picked and so we got him.

 

Through his misty eyes, he thought he saw the couple coming back to the shop. They did. And they picked him up and brought him back to Singapore where they lived happily ever after.

 

 

We scurried to watch the fountain show before heading back to the hotel for the airport transfer.

 

 

Due to poor estimation of time, we realized we had not too much time to get back to the hotel before the coach arrives. We took the metro back to Emirates Mall and had just enough time to grab Mac takeaway and walk back to our hotel.

 

But to our horror, we lost our bearings and could not find the correct exit. Emirates Mall is huge and the shopping mall staff could not point us in the right direction.

 

With the meeting time approaching, we scampered about trying different exits. It didn't help that we could not identify the surrounding buildings in the night time. After 20 mins of adrenaline charged searching, we finally located the traffic light that we crossed to get to the mall and traced our steps back to the hotel in time for departure.